Taj M Khattak

As a successful businessman, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would know about the old adage that one unhappy customer will do more damage to your reputation than ten happy ones can help restore it. That is more or less what is happening these…

For the past two months, the national discourse has remained polarised between those who captured the state’s resources after last year’s election and now strongly advocate the cause of democracy and those hurling allegations of corruption…

The storied hall of the United Nations General Assembly in New York is not quite the place where leaders of member countries spell out any dramatic shifts in their government’s policies. The speeches made there, for the most part, are…

The media images from the recent few days, where policemen are seen dragging media men from their vehicles and beating them mercilessly, and an unruly mob subjecting a senior police official to ruthless violence, were very disturbing. The…

The leader of the opposition was not alone in his confusion over ‘national security’ after a speech by Chaudhry Nisar in the National Assembly. ‘What is national security?’ may sound simple but is a complex question to answer. The…

Pakistan has been in the grip of brutal and senseless attacks by militants using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for some time now. In the latest attack, 27 security personnel were martyred and 38 others injured when a private vehicle…

The last few days witnessed two very sad but significant events in quick succession. In a small village called Ibrahimzai in Hangu, 15-year-old Aitizaz Hasan, triumphed over terrorists by stopping one of them from entering his school, thus…

When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid invited President Nelson Mandela to visit Bangladesh in 1997 for the 25th anniversary of the country’s independence, it appeared to be a signal of a new direction towards reconciliatory politics away…

Nawaz Sharif, in selection of the incumbent chief of the army staff, has once again fallen for instincts of personal preferences as opposed to the choices thrown up by institutional process. True, seniority is not a Quranic injunction but…

Millions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s supporters woke up on election day to what legendary cricket commentator (late) Omer Qureshi would have described as “...it is a bright sunny day here and Pakistan has elected to bat”. In the end,…